Status Updates From Every Day I Read: 53 Ways t...

“There’s nothing I want to do more than to relax the entire day with a book”

Reading. A good book to take in small snippets. Mull the thoughts around. I enjoy the references to Korean culture.

“July is coming to an end…it would be nice to just lie in bed all day and read.
'Aren't you already reading every day?' I can hear your thoughts from the other side of the book.”

“When I imagine myself as a novel character, I crave the infinite possibilities of life. To step away from the dichotomy of success and failure, and stop judging a person's life based on their achievements or mistakes. I read to live in the moment.”

“Ultimately, it's either a happy ending or a sad one.
Life, too, doesn't care whether you succeed or fail in the end. What's important is how you choose to live each day, what you learnt, and the kind of stories you want to fill your life.”

“In ‘What Authors Do’ by Kim Yeon-su, stories are born out of characters seeking what they don't have, which is why you'll never get a perfect character who already has everything. We read about their struggles, their efforts, and the higher they aspire, the more intense the stories get.”

“And those who name a character after themselves - is that their way of finding purpose in storytelling?”

“I wonder what authors are thinking when they write a novel. Do they want to put a bit of themselves inside?” (Self-insert?)

“Just like I analyse characters in a novel, I am better able to observe myself from a distance. I…give everything to live a vivid, colourful life, I'm the type who realises, belatedly, how plain my life is and then feels a lingering regret that I hadn't done more.”

“To observe myself objectively, sometimes I imagine myself as a fictional character. When I do that, it's as if I'm looking at ‘me’ through a camera. In a novel, what type of character would I be? I don't think I'm the type that causes trouble…Maybe I'm the bluntly honest friend that rubs others up the wrong way?”

“Good books teach us empathy and connect each of us.”

“Empathy, whether given or received, is important. To understand that some things are universal, but at the same time to accept individual differences. When we’re able to empathise with others, we’re also learning to embrace ourselves positively, and to spread that positivity to others. When we try to understand others, they do the same for us, and that's how we bond.“

“We read to understand others. To understand someone else is empathy. That person might not have anything in common with us at all. He may be a monstrous being who shoots his own daughter, but like us he also carries deep pain within him. In that sense, we can transcend our individual selves and experiences to empathise with his circumstances.”

“And when the characters in the novel hug each other, somehow it feels like we’re being comforted too.”